Debut or Die

‘This late at night, are you out of your mind?’

No matter how much he worked until night due to his job, this was already past midnight.

I thought Gold 1 was still a sensible guy, but it seemed I was wrong.

I answered the phone with bewilderment.

“Hello.”

– Ah, Moondae.

Gold 1’s reply sounded a little dazed.

– Um… Oh, is it okay to call you now?

“Yes. Please speak.”

– Okay. Um…

Gold 1 took a long pause, then slowly continued.

– I heard about it.

“Yes?”

– Our company to you… They said you didn’t take it well.

“…!”

You’re openly bringing it up?

That company was going crazy with emergency bomb disposal, so it wouldn’t be strange if this guy figured out the situation, but it was strange that he called me all of a sudden.

‘What are you going to do?’

This question was answered the very next moment.

– That… I’m sorry.

“…”

Is it about this?

Well, what I could say to him was pretty obvious.

“Hyung wasn’t the one who did it, so you don’t have to worry too much.”

If he said it because the company asked him to, it would be useless, but still, it would be nice if those words came from Gold 1 himself.

‘This should be enough.’

But Gold 1’s answer was unexpected.

-…No, actually, I think I knew roughly what the situation was like. I just pretended not to know.

“…!”

– I heard about you at work sometimes.

I could hear Gold 1 sigh over the phone.

– I didn’t know it was this bad… But I guess I rationalized it in my head.

I thought it wouldn’t be a problem because you guys were doing so well.

“…Um.”

– But thinking about it again today, I would have been really annoyed if I was in your position.

His voice trembled a little.

– So I’m calling to apologize. Um, originally, I was going to say it to Chungwoo, but I thought you’re the one who suffered the most, so I speak to you first.

Hmm, this was true in a way.

‘The company must have really turned upside down.’

A person’s guilt didn’t arise for no reason. That neighborhood must be really a mess, enough for the singer to look back on the past.

‘Still, it’s great that he thought of an apology first rather than the backlash.’

He didn’t contact to put his mind at ease or to help the company… What can I do? This guy was only as old as a college student.

Just having the courage to apologize, I could see him as a decent guy.

I received the apology in a good light.

“It’s fine. I was a little surprised, but it’s all over.”

In a situation where the one f*cking around was his company, I had no reason not to accept his apology.

I mean, what can he do?

– Yeah, thank you.

I could hear the voice of Gold 1 sighing in relief.

– And Seulhui also asked me to tell you that he’s sorry and thankful. He said you were kind to him during the filming.

“…?”

Who… Ah, right. The Korean university student.

‘Should I call him Gold 3?’

I accepted it in moderation.

“I didn’t do much… Anyway, I understand.”

– Yeah. …Gasp, wait. It’s 1 am right now??

“Yes.”

Gold 1 groaned in a strange voice.

It lost its weight in an instant.

– Wow, I’m so sorry. I was monitoring…

“So did I. It’s all right.”

It seemed that side was also watching <The Calls of the Past> featuring the Korean University student as a group.

“But it’s time to go to bed.”

I made an appropriate closing remark, and Gold 1 hung up the call.

– Ah, yeah. Hmm, good night. I’ll be rooting for you.

“Yes. Thank you. I hope you the best, too.”

The conversation ended smoothly.

However, I had a hunch that in the future, they probably wouldn’t say hello or pretend to know us like they did at the beginning of their debut.

‘It can’t be helped.’

This was what it meant to be competitors. I shrugged my shoulders and turned my smartphone to silent mode to avoid any other disruptions.

‘Let’s sleep.’

And I slept soundly without knowing that Seon Ahyeon and Bae Sejin were entering the dorm.

Thanks to this, it wasn’t until the next morning that I checked the text message that came at dawn.

* * *

[Hubae-nim, you put your experience as a civil servant examinee to good use. Congratulations ^^]

What’s up with this bastard?

I almost spluttered my food.

‘When did he send this?’

Looking at the time of the text message arrival, it was 4 a.m.

‘He must be in the salon when he sent this.’

What a nuisance.

I looked at the word ‘VTIC Cheongryeo sunbae-nim’ with cold eyes, and his profile picture was the golden retriever that I had seen back when I was doing the insurance commercial.

‘Come to think of it, I told this guy that I studied for the civil servant exam.’

It became some kind of unintentional proof of trust.

I quickly typed ‘Yes thank you’ and tried to exit the message tab. But before I could do that, a new text came.

Ring–

[(Image file)]

It was a… gifticon out of the blue.

“…??”

When I clicked on it, it was ‘a chocolate set to support examinees’ sold at franchise cafes.

Did he send this as a joke?

[I sent it as support for the activity. Isn’t it time for a new song soon?]

That… He was right. It was time to release the repackaged album.

And, as planned, we picked the song for this activity out of the candidate songs received from the composer who was in charge of Golden Age’s songs.

‘The arrangement is done well.’

Kim Raebin’s arrangement passed almost unanimously, but I noticed that Kim Raebin still wasn’t very confident.

The funny thing was, he was more concerned about the environment rather than his own skills.

– We definitely chose a genre that stands out on the music charts, but if a new trend arrives by the time we release the song, the measure of popularity will completely change…!.

– That won’t happen, Raebin, calm down.

We’d had this kind of conversation several times recently.

I held back my sigh.

‘You should worry about your feet.’

Kim Raebin’s foot was recently judged to have a ‘perfect level of recovery that no longer requires stability’. Thanks to that, the choreography practice went smoothly.

‘If he hadn’t insisted on doing the indoor climbing, he would have gotten it off a week earlier.’

I knew he was passionate about following the schedule, but he was a really strict guy.

“If we aim for too much popularity, the critics will criticize a lot…”

“No, Raebin~ Don’t worry, and just eat.”

He was doing that even while eating.

Anyway, the preparation for the album was smooth sailing.

‘If I was going to silence that company anyway, did I draw a big picture using that composer for no reason?’

Even Youngrin and Cheongryeo got involved to share the composer.

I thought while putting rice wrapped in seaweed into my mouth.

‘Hmm, Youngrin got good records this time, too.’

A new song released two weeks ago by Youngrin, whom I deliberately shared the Golden Age’s composer with, was also currently at the top of the music charts.

A few days ago, I received another separate thank you for introducing her to the composer.

‘Ah, that’s why they got angry.’

If the Golden Age company had heard somewhere that I was the one who introduced the composer to Youngrin, it would make more sense why they had been dragging me down lately.

‘You work better when you put emotions into your job.’

It was still a bit ridiculous that they got pissed off for sharing the composer while they had gone viral.

‘Well, it’s all over.’

It wasn’t morally problematic, so those guys who were out of breath right now struggling against T1 wouldn’t be able to hold bad feelings for long.

‘Then we’re next after Youngrin.’

The last was VTIC, Cheongryeo’s group.

‘Quick-witted bastard.’

While talking about tours and comeback schedules, we fall behind, but he was basically saying that he would bet on it after watching our rise and fall and being proven.

‘It’s not even the title track, just the b-side song, but he made so much fuss.’

It was like a perfectionist reset syndrome.

…Well, conversely, the fact that this lunatic was willing to cooperate was a sign of cooperation in itself.

‘I can bear it if we continue like this.’

I sighed and moved my thumb to the smartphone keyboard.

[Yes, I’ll do my best. Thank you for the chocolate, sunbae-nim. I hope you have a good day.]

[All right.]

Yeah. This was neat.

Perhaps this guy liked the composer’s song deep down, he became much more cooperative.

‘And if the Golden Age doesn’t do anything wrong, it’s better not to say anything else.’

In many ways, this picture was fine. I nodded and focused on eating again.

No, I was going to, but my smartphone rang again.

Ring–

“…”

[Oh, my birthday is in next month. 27th.]

So what.

I turned off my smartphone with disgust.

Let’s finish eating.

“Did each of you bring your bowls?”

“Yes!”

We had someone who would clean it, but I put the bowl in the sink for basic etiquette.

Then, it was free time.

“Uhahaha!”

Usually, they often played in their own rooms, but today, the living room was crowded with people who came to watch Cha Eugene playing a strange dancing game.

‘Should I go to my room?’

I came out because I was always in my room, but they were too noisy.

But I was too lazy to move, so I found another thing to focus on.

‘…It’s time to look at it.’

It would be more convenient to do it when it was noisy because that way, I didn’t have to think about anything else.

‘Status window.’

For the first time in a long time, I started the settlement.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]

Level : 0

Title: None

Vocal: S-

Dance: B

Visual: A-

Talent: B+

Characteristics: Infinite potential, International student (A), Bacchus 500 (B), Snatching ears (A)

!Status abnormality: Get the audience or die

The remaining points: 2

The vocal that had entered S rank caught my attention first.

‘I am a little proud.’

It was a good item. From entertainment to activities, I had used it a lot.

After that, I noticed the points I gained from leveling up, but another factor bothered me more.

‘Why?‘

For some reason, my talent naturally increased from B to B+.

‘I don’t think I’ve done anything particularly worthwhile.’

I hadn’t opened it recently, so I didn’t know when it increased.

“Hmm.”

Anyway, the stat going up was a good thing.

I calmly crossed my arms.

Now I just had to quickly distribute the points and then turn it off.

Now right before the new album came out was the right time.

‘Following the standard procedure… Talent.’

This was the most efficient choice because it was an opportunity to enter the A rank by consuming only one point.

“Good.”

“What is?”

“…!”

Oops.

It seemed I had said it with my mouth because I was too focused on leaving the status window.

Cha Eugene, who had just finished the game, was looking this way with wide eyes.

‘Well, I didn’t say anything else.’

It didn’t matter. I was about to give a rough answer, but I suddenly thought of something.

Let’s see what these guys think.

“Hmm, this is just a hypothetical question.”

“Yes!”

“What do you think is the most necessary skill to become an idol?”

“Hmm? It’s like- personality?”

Personality.

‘Is it possible to roughly substitute that with a skill?’

It was something a guy with such good skills would say, it was hard to find even in the same industry.

But Kim Raebin stepped in from next to me.

“You should give a more professional answer! Hyung! I think it’s the ability to pull off a song. I think expressiveness is important.”

Yes. In the end, those were words that could be substituted with ‘Talent’, just like Cha Eugene’s.

“Mine was professional! Your answer was plain!”

“No! Your answer was insincere!”

As I watched those two fighting, a gloomy voice interrupted from next to me.

“…Basic skill.”

It was Bae Sejin. It sounded like he was saying what he felt was necessary for him.

Meanwhile, Keun Sejin also added a word to Cha Eugene and Kim Raebin’s quarrel.

“You should be good at everything~ Why are you still arguing about that?”

“But I want to choose something more important….”

It was a mess.

‘I shouldn’t have asked.’

Let’s just leave it until they came to a conclusion. I shook my head and decided to use the gap in the conversation to check something else.

It was the event pop-up.

[The true taste of fame!]

10,000,000 people remembered your existence!

: Draw Legendary Characteristics ? Click!

10 million people.

At this point, it was impossible to imagine this scale gathering in reality.

What was even scarier was that this pop-up had been around for quite some time. Maybe… It was running towards 50 million people right now.

‘Huft.’

It felt rewarding and creepy at the same time.

Anyway, let’s click on the characteristic draw.

Dung Dung Dung Dung-

With the image of a familiar slot machine, the slots started to spin.

‘Since the hero characteristic started with B… If it’s legendary characteristic, does A come out as default?’

Ten million people knew me, so I should have that much at least.

But the slots were mixed with gold.

‘What?’

Only the probability of a higher grade was created, and it wasn’t confirmed that an A grade would come out.

‘It’s like a mass-produced game.’

I glared at the slot machine that spun with a mixture of gold, platinum, and rainbow colors.

‘Anything is fine, so I hope something useful for the activities comes out.’

It was time to abandon the ‘International student’ and changed it. It would be nice if I got something that helped with concept performance or made my hair look better at least.

The slot rotated slowly and then stopped.

Fortunately, it stopped at platinum.

Papapang!

[Characteristic]

Acquired ‘Now that I heard it, you’re right (A)’!

“…!”

But there… The name of the characteristic that I had seen before was floating.

Just with a different grade.